Chris Servheen is grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula.

"The bear population is healthy. It’s been healthy for some time. Right now in the Yellowstone ecosystem, grizzly bears occupy more habitat than the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island combined," Servheen says.

Grizzlies in the lower 48 states were added to the endangered and threatened species list in 1975. According to government researchers, the Yellowstone ecosystem’s grizzly population has rebounded from as few as 136 then to over 700 today.

But the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chris Servheen says this delisting proposal is based on much more than just bear numbers; there’s habitat management for one:

"Which limits the amount of road building and livestock grazing. It limits the amount of site development in what’s called the primary conservation area which is the old recovery zone. We also have mortality limits; limits on adult female mortality, adult male mortality and sub-adult mortality and how many bears can die in order to have a healthy population.”

Wildlife officials plan to maintain the Yellowstone population at about 674 bears. That’s the average population recorded since 2002. If bear numbers drop below 600, strictly regulated hunting of the bears would stop. So would removal of bears that attack livestock. The only exception would be killing of bears that threaten public safety.

Some environmental organizations, such as the Montana Wildlife Federation, offered cautious support to today’s delisting proposal announcement.

Others, however, say it’s just too soon to consider doing this.

"While we’re not surprised (by the delisting announcement), we are a little disappointed. We do think the delisting at this point is premature for a number of reasons."

"The idea is to facilitate the movement of grizzly bears, particularly between the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and the Yellowstone Ecosystem, and to see eventual movement between those two ecosystems.”

"The whitebark pine obviously has been impacted by climate change. Yellowstone cutthroat trout is another major food source. They’ve been taken over by lake trout. And as the winters are getting shorter and warmer with climate change, the bears are having less winter killed ungulates when they come out of their dens in the spring to feed on.”

"The end result of their analysis was that they couldn’t detect any effect of the changes in food resources. Not only at the individual level, but on the population level. So, we don’t believe that food changes are a threat.”

The Center for Biological Diversity says it will closely study the proposal when it’s released for public review and comment next week. The organization hasn’t yet decided whether or not to legally challenge it.

Related Content

Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone Park are starting to wake up. Park officials are reminding visitors of bear safety basics. Wolf researchers reported the first grizzly sighting on February 22 in the Nez Perce drainage.

Journalist Todd Wilkinson talks about his latest book, "The Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek."

A record 59 grizzly bears died in the Yellowstone ecosystem in 2015, most of them after conflicts with hunters and livestock growers. And yet, one bear, a female called 399, has shown a remarkable ability to survive interactions with humans without getting herself into trouble. If 399 emerges from her den next spring, she’ll be 20 years old.

According to journalist Todd Wilkinson “399, because she’s been so accessible, has become the most famous and widely-recognized bear on earth.”

Wilkinson is the author of Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek: An Intimate Portrait of 399. The book is coffee-table-sized and includes dozens of gorgeous images captured by Wyoming naturalist-photographer Thomas Mangleson. Wilkinson, says Mangleson had to work hard for those images.

“The only way that you can amass a portfolio like this,” says Wilkinson, “is spending months of every year rising before sun rise, staying out until past dusk, trailing these bears, but not getting too close, because he’s an ethical wildlife photographer. But he also had this network of people wired. So whenever sightings would occur of either 399 or her daughter, 610, Mangelson would know where to go and then provide a stake-out in order to see the bears.”

Three-ninety-nine’s intelligence is legendary. Not only has she managed to stay alive for nearly two decades, but she has taught her cubs what she knows about avoiding trouble with humans.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — American Indians across the Western U.S. are challenging moves by federal wildlife officials to lift protections for grizzly bears that roam a vast wilderness centered on Yellowstone National Park, citing worries over potential trophy hunting of a species many tribes consider sacred.

State and federal grizzly bear experts meeting in Missoula this week have no shortage of topics to discuss.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee is catching up on everything from to habitat and conservation strategies to ongoing efforts to recover the animals’ overall population so it no longer needs federal Endangered Species Act protections.

"We’ve got a huge effort underway. It’s very complicated and we want to make sure everybody’s on the same page and being successful in moving forward.”